Bringing their hero back home ... at last

Capt. Thomas Reitmann poses for a photograph before taking flight. After he was shot down in Vietnam, the Air Force officer was promoted to major. Now, more than 45 years later, his remains are on their way from Vietnam to Arlington National Cemetery.

The Reitmann family in 1962. Three years later, Carol, far left, would receive the news that her fighter pilot husband had been lost in Vietnam.

Carol Reitmann locked her car doors as a group, led by an Air Force chaplain, made its way across a parking lot on Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. She wasn't ready to receive the news she felt certain they had...